Wave-power



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. M. DYER.

WAVE POWER.

No. 460,371. Patente'd Sept. 29, 1891 FIG l ens cm, mmwmnm. wnsmvawu n c 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. M. DYER. WAVE POWER.

(No Model.)

Patented Sept. 29, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES M. DYER, OF SAN FRANCISCO, ASSIGN OR OF ONE-FOURTH TO AGOSTINO SOIARONI, OF NEYVTOIVN, CALIFORNIA.

WAVE-POWER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 460,371, datedSeptember 29, 1891. Application filed April 1, 1891. Serial No. 387,288. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JAMES M. Dvnn, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, have invented an Improvement in WVave-Power; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a novel means for applying the motion and force of the waves and in transmitting this motion and converting it into a rotary motion which can be applied to machinery for various purposes.

Referring to the accompanying drawings for a more complete explanation of my invention, Figure l is a perspective view of my invention. Fig. 2 shows a modification of the same.

A is a float, which may be made of wood or metal and of any suitable size and convenient form and with sufflcient buoyancy, so that it may rise and fall with the motion of the waves. This float is anchored, so that its movement will be essentially a vertical and oscillating motion. In Fig. 1 I have shown it anchored by means of a hawser or hawsers B, which are attached to the floatnear the center, so that the float will stand in a line with the line of movement of the waves. When constructed in this manner,,the float is of such a length that one end will be raised by the wave while the other sinks into a depression between two adjacent waves, and in this way the float will be caused to oscillate, each end alternately rising and falling as the waves pass beneath it.

C is a frame-work fixed to the float and extending transversely across the points where the anchoring-hawsers connect with the float, so that as the float oscillates upon the waves this frame-work will be caused to oscillate in unison with it. From the opposite ends of the frame-work O the ropes D extend to the shore or to any suitable structure which is situated at a considerable distance from the float, so that the connecting-ropes D extend approximately at right angles from the frame-work C. These ropes pass around the drums E, which are mounted upon the shaft F, turning loosely upon the shaft and having a pawl-and-ratchet mechanism of any suitable construction, as

shown at G, the ratchets being secured to the shaft and the pawls pivoted to the sides of the drums E. The ends of the ropes, after passing around the pulleys E, depend upon the opposite sides and have attached to them weights H, which will always exert a tension upon the ropes to cause them to move around the pulleys when the strain which is brought upon them by the float is relieved.

In Fig. 2 I have shown the float connected directly to the frame-work O, and this framework is pivoted or fulcrumedto a piling or structure B, which is permanently fixed at such a point that the float will lie upon and be actuatedby the waves, and will transmit its motion through the oscillations of the frame-work O in a manner similar to that described in Fig. 1. In this case the ropes D extend from the ends of the timbers of the frame, which are at right angles with each other, and pass around the drums E and operate in the same manner as before described.

The operation will then be'as follows: The float being anchored at any point where there is a sufficient wave motion, the alternate rise and fall of its opposite ends, as shown in Fig. 1, or the direct rise and fall of the whole float, as shown in Fig. 2, acts to oscillate the frame-work O about the point of motion, so that the frame-work will oscillate backward and forward, alternately pulling upon the ropes D and rotating their respective ropedrums E. As each drum is rotated in one direction, the pawl-and-ratchet mechanism connected with the shaft or axle F will cause the latter to be rotated, and as the return movement of the float relieves the rope connected with one end the weight II will, by exerting a tension upon that rope, rotate the drum E in the opposite direction, the ratchet mechanism allowing the drum to rotate freely without action upon the shaft. During this time, however, the opposite end of the float is acting through its rope D upon the other drum, and through its ratchet mechanism the rotation of the shaft will be continued in the same direction as before. These alternate oscillations of the frame-work O thus act to give the shaft F a nearly or quite continuous rotary by the apmotion. It will be manifest that plication of a sufficiently-heavy fly-wheel the motion could be kept up during the slight intervals between the oscillations of the ends of the fioat and the ends of the attached framework to which the ropes were attached.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a wave-power motor, a float having a frame-work connected therewith, a fulcrum about which said frame-work is caused to oscillate by the alternate rise and fall of the waves acting upon the float, ropes connected with opposite ends of the framework, drums loosely mounted upon a journal-sl1aft about which said ropes pass, pawl-and-ratchet mechanism whereby the drums are alternately connected with the shaft to rotate it in one direction and release it so as to rotate freely in the opposite direction, and weights attached to the ends of the ropes, whereby a tension is maintained to return the rope-drums when the movement of the waves relieves the tension upon either of the ropes, substantially as herein described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JAMES M. DYER.

Witnesses:

S. H. NOURSE, J. A. BAYLESS. 

